Milwaukee is one of 20 cities named a finalist in The Mayor’s Challenge, a national competition organized by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to generate innovative, local solutions to national problems.

More than 300 cities entered the competition, which comes with a $5 million grand prize. | Nov. 5, 2012»Read Full Blog Post(24)

As aphorisms go, pain "demands to be felt" and "Love means never having to say you're sorry" are kin of a sort.

But in intent and application, "The Fault in Our Stars" is a more genuine experience than "Love Story," and doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth for having been manipulated into indulging in it. After all, the very concept of a romantic drama about teens who meet in a cancer support group all but foreshadows several limited outcomes. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article

Wassily Kandinsky described painting as a "thundering collision" of worlds in conflict.

"Technically, every work of art comes into being in the same way as the cosmos — by means of catastrophes," he wrote on the eve of World War I. "The creation of the work of art is the creation of the world." | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article(1)

On Fridays I'm posting my thoughts on Lou Reed's solo albums, one album at a time in chronological order of release.

"Berlin" was the album Lou Reed could never completely let go of. This dark concept album about self-destructive speed freaks Jim and Caroline didn't meet with a rapturous reception when it was released in 1973. Some listeners hated its depressing subject; others were underwhelmed by its recording quality. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Blog Post

Dyer, a British essayist and novelist who won a National Book Critics Circle award for "Otherwise Known as the Human Condition," spent two weeks on the aircraft carrier as a writer in residence. He brought on board both a boyhood love of military aircraft and his adult fascination with American life. For Dyer, it was "like staying in a small town in America (albeit one organized along unusually clear hierarchical lines), surrounded by American voices, American friendliness, American politeness, American Americans. That, I knew, would be a source of pleasure and happiness." | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article

In his book "The Future of the Mind" (Doubleday), physicist Michio Kaku describes multiple lines of research that could lead to significant, life-enhancing breakthroughs in neuroscience, including ones we might even consider forms of telekinesis and telepathy.

And as Kaku reports in his book, for people with disabilities, the ability to move a prosthesis through a mental signal, or to communicate without speech, could be life-changing developments. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article

Nine years after the end of her Farewell tour, Cher is back with the Dressed to Kill tour, making a stop at the BMO Harris Bradley Center Friday. Are critics happy she's back or wishing she'd said goodbye for good? Read on for a roundup of reactions to recent shows.

A new business is going into the Red Mill building in Brookfield: Butch’s Red Mill.

The previous restaurant closed this year, and Butch Schettle bought the building in May. He also owns Butch’s Old Casino Steak House at 555 N. James Lovell St., Butch’s Steak House in Stone Bank and Big Mouth Frog bar in Oak Creek. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(5)

The Best of Brew City is your mobile guide to going out in Milwaukee. Locate events, live music, bars and restaurants near you and in Milwaukee's most popular neighborhoods. Visitbestofbrewcity.com and download the app for iOS or Android today.

The spring Bay View Gallery Night, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, is loading up its plate with a lot of affiliated extras, including the 2014 Bay View Jazz Fest, with free jazz performances at four venues; and Food Truck Friday @ Morgan Park, with a growing roster of local food trucks plying their wares from 5 to 8 p.m. in the park at Kinnickinnic and Holt avenues. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article

Given the chance to put a restaurant in a half-timbered building in Wauwatosa that looked as if it had been plucked from Germany itself, the Lowlands restaurant group made an obvious call: It would open a German restaurant, Cafe Bavaria.

Also a smart call, judging by its popularity: This restaurant was so packed after its opening in February that a half-hour wait for a table even on a weeknight wasn't unusual — at least until summer returned and lured people back outdoors. In a state where more than one in three people claims German ancestry, it's a wonder more German restaurants don't open. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article(5)

The last time I was in Jerry's Old Town Inn in Germantown, the 19th-century building was showing its age. Certainly, the dining room was; it looked like it hadn't been remodeled in decades.

The newly redone Old Town Inn, under new owner Chaz Hastings, is a marvel. He kept the building's shell, its stained-glass windows, even the ceramic pigs displayed in the previous restaurant. | June 6, 2014»Read Full Article(7)